00:00Despite mounting criticisms of the Prime Minister's comments on US airstrikes targeting alleged
00:07Venezuelan drug trafficking vessels, former National Security Minister Gary Griffith
00:13insists his stance is both justified and necessary. He argues that Venezuela initiated confrontation
00:22and that the Prime Minister is not escalating tensions but defending herself and the sovereignty
00:29of Trinidad and Tobago.
00:31But she basically is standing up to a bully. Venezuela, they are bullies. Have you ever noticed
00:36the United States threaten Venezuela constantly? Maduro, these are numbered. Venezuela this,
00:41that and the other. They're not saying a word about the United States. But you're every day
00:45you're doing a release about Trinidad and Tobago. So it's like you have a little boy, a young boy
00:51and his big brother is walking through the corridor of the school and the bully is watching. The bully
00:55cannot touch the little brother because the big brother is there. That's what Venezuela they are.
00:58They are bullies. Addressing the panic and hysteria on Friday, Griffith sharply criticized the failure
01:06to inform the Prime Minister of the reported drill involving all members of the Protective Services,
01:12describing it as a serious lapse in communication and coordination. It is unacceptable that the chair
01:18of the National Security Council was not aware that all members of the Defence Force were called in.
01:23Something went wrong. There are three ways for information to be passed in real time throughout the
01:28country. Three forms of communication. Television, telephone and tell a soldier. When you tell a
01:34soldier in Trinidad and Tobago, everybody knows because it spreads. According to Griffith, nowhere in the world
01:41would such a lapse be tolerated in a nation on the brink of war, calling it madness that the Prime Minister
01:48was left uninformed. He admonishes the Homeland Security Minister emphasizing that this is no time for
01:56flippancy, theatrics or empty gestures. Instead, he says, it is a moment to exercise responsibility,
02:04communicate with clarity and address issues of national significance. Griffith warns firmly against what he
02:12describes as repeating the mistakes of previous administrations. You don't say, well, that is
02:18not true, that is rubbish, so I have no right to inform the public. Roger Alexander, you're dead wrong
02:23and it caused the country to be in panic mode. And it's not for us to continue to go on to this over
02:28and over, but it's just for you to learn from your mistakes. But for you to do a skit and to walk forward
02:32to our mic and say, our train is arriving at six o'clock and the sky is falling. You're trivializing the fact that the whole
02:38country was fearful. The country was virtually shut down and it is the same mistake we made 35 years ago.
02:44Nicole M. Romany, TV6 News.
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